By Jane Meggitt,Special Writer
ALLENTOWN Students at Newell Elementary and Stone Bridge Middle School achieved scores on the latest state standardized tests that exceeded the overall proficiency rate of peers in similar school districts, as well as the statewide average.
Last spring, elementary and middle school students in the Upper Freehold Regional School District (UFRSD) took the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJASK) test. Last year’s third-grade and eighth-grade students were also given a state science test.
Steve Cochrane, assistant superintendent of curriculum, gave a presentation highlighting UFRSD’s test scores at the Nov. 26 Board of Education meeting. He compared how students fared compared to the statewide average, as well as to the scores in districts that are similar to UFRSD.
The state Department of Education uses a District Factor Group classification system to group together communities of similar socio-economic status for test comparison purposes. DFGs are ranked alphabetically from A to J, with J being the highest. UFRSD is in the GH district factor group.
According to Mr. Cochrane, Newell Elementary School students who took the test last spring had overall proficiency levels in language arts and mathematics that were again higher than the state and DFG average.
”Our scores in writing for the first time surpassed the averages in the DFG,” Mr. Cochrane’s report stated.
The percentage of students scoring at the advanced proficient level was exceptionally high for math, with 60.4 percent of all third-graders (including special education students) scoring at the advanced level. Among only general education students the advanced proficiency rate was 72 percent.
In science, 98.3 percent of last year’s fourth-graders passed the science test with proficient test scores, while 57.6 percent scored advanced proficient.
A total of 86.4 percent of Newell fourth-graders passed the math test with proficient scores, exceeding both state and DFG averages. However, only 34.7 percent of Newell fourth-graders last spring scored advanced proficient in math, which is lower than the DFG level of 41.5 percent.
At the Stone Bridge Middle School, the overall proficiency in math exceeded the state and DFG average for grades 5 through 8. In language arts, overall proficiency was above state and DFG averages for grades 6 through 8.
”Strong gains were made in writing at grade six, and the percentage of students in grades seven and eight scoring at the advanced proficient level in language arts was once again significantly higher than the DFG,” according to the report.
While eighth graders achieved a proficiency level of 96.2 percent for science, which is above the state and DFG average, students scoring at the advanced proficiency level fell from 50 percent in 2011 to 35.3 percent this year.
However, in language arts, 30.1 percent of eighth-graders scored at the advanced proficient level, significantly higher than the state average of 14.5 percent and DFG of 19.9 percent.
Mr. Cochrane’s analysis concludes: “The consistent and high quality use by our teachers of the instructional methods associated with reading and writing workshop is continuing to have a significant impact on the achievement of all students.”